History

History of the Institute of Corrosion

When the Institute celebrated its 50th year, the late David Deacon wrote several articles about the historical roots of the Institute from its foundation in 1958 right through to 2009.

The history of the Institute and development over 50 years

1958 - 1966

I appreciate the support and help that Harry Hatley has given me, since he was an original founder member of the British Association of Corrosion Engineers (BACE) and was present at the inaugural meeting, held on the 21st May 1959.

The prime mover for the formation of an Association of Corrosion Engineers, was the brainchild of Dr John Tiratsoo, who was the owner and driving force under a magazine called, ‘Corrosion Prevention and Control.’ He initially included in this magazine a section entitled the ‘Corrosion Engineer,’ which was first issued in April 1959 and he then convened the inaugural meeting on the 21st May at their offices at 97 Old Brompton Road, London. The Association was therefore formed on that date, and an announcement was made on the 29th May to the national press at a social event at the Rembrandt Hotel on the 29th May 1959.

The main theme of the announcement in 1959, which was made by Mr. H M Powell, chief Electrical Engineer of the Constructors John Brown Organization, stated, “The objects of the Association will be generally to promote the dissemination of technical information about corrosion matters and to develop by means of social activities, the free interchange of information among members.

In due course, the Association, which is of course essentially non-profit making, will progress towards the establishment and acceptance of suitable qualifications for corrosion engineers, and a promotion of standardization in the terminology and techniques of corrosion control.

When the Association is in full operation it is intended to hold full scale meetings with papers, films and discussions, which should be of great benefit to the corrosion engineering profession as a whole and which will promote and foster its growth and develop as well as being a general service to industry.”

It is clear, that the objectives have been put into practice by the generations of corrosion engineers, who have developed that initial theme over the past 50 years.

1967 - 1978

I talked about the early days and the formation of the British Association of Corrosion Engineers (BACE), which was inaugurated at a meeting held on the 21st May 1959.

The arrangements with Dr Tiratsoo, the publishers of the journal, Corrosion, Prevention and Control, which had the insert Corrosion Engineer, were discontinued following a meeting of the Council of BACE in July 1962. BACE then produced their own journal in the autumn of 1962. This change followed the establishment of a number of sub-committees and Branches and clearly the message was spreading rapidly across the country.

The Council of BACE decided in 1966 to rename BACE so as, “to become institutionalised.” The selected name by the Membership was the Institution of Corrosion Technology and this brought about the first office move from Old Brompton Road to Ovington Place, both in South West London.

The expansion and the momentum created with the change of name resulted in a number of key Members of Council and Officers lobbying MP’s about the inactivity of the country generally and industry in particular to the devastating costly effects of corrosion in all areas of industry. The result of this lobbying was brought to the attention of the Minister for Technology, the Rt. Hon. Anthony Wedgwood Benn MP, who in 1969 asked the Department of Trade and Industry, to set up a Committee with a broad cross-section of Membership, not only to assess the cost of corrosion to the UK, but also to look at ways in which this could be overcome.

The Committee was formed in March 1969 and Dr TP Hoar, who was head of the Department of Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge, was appointed as Chairman. There were over 20 Members appointed to this Committee, representing a wide range of Industries and Government Departments, as well as Universities and Technical Colleges. Many of the Members were active within the new Institution of Corrosion Technology and others were Members of the Corrosion and Protection Association (CAPA), which represented the Scientific and Academic interests.

The DTI report was published in February 1971 and a major public conference was held by the Institute of Mechanical Engineers in April 1971, when the report was publicised and presented in detail. It was a comprehensive document, comprising 130 pages. The Committee held 17 full meetings during the preparatory work and in addition 5 sessions were held when private experts were brought in and were interviewed individually by the Committee. 57 Universities and 403 Technical Colleges were also questioned on the subject of education and qualifications and over 800 individuals, representing private companies were also interviewed.

The extensive work and close liaison following the initiative by the Rt. Hon. Anthony Wedgwood Benn, resulted in close collaboration between members and officers of both CAPA and ICorr Tech. During the early 1970s after the launch of the report, meetings of the two Councils were held and after protracted discussions the Institute of Corrosion Science & Technology (ICorr S&T) was formed on the 1st January 1975.

This merger of the two most important Corrosion Institutions and Associations gave a further boost in the fight against corrosion in the UK. The first President of ICorr S&T was Prof. Stuart Llewellyn-Leach and the Chairman of Council was, Dr Michael Clarke. The Corrosion and Protection Association, transferred on that date to become the Corrosion Science Division of the new Institution.

The meetings, the Annual Dinner and the activities of the various Branches became wider spread and the programmes across the UK were rapidly growing and were very well supported. At the time of the merger the total Membership of the two organisations was in excess of 900 Members, but since there was a degree of overlap the new Institution started with 850 Members.

It was interesting to note that in the early BACE/ICorr Tech days the Annual Dinner was only attended by males, with formal dinner jacket dress and any guests had to be males only! The formation of the new Institution and the annual dinner in 1975 allowed for the attendance of female guests!

The launch of the DTI, Hoar report, which had such a major impact on the corrosion world resulted in Prof. Graham Wood being appointed, Prof of Corrosion Science at the University of Manchester, Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) when this position was created in 1972. One of the first actions was for Prof. Graham Wood to set up an industrial corrosion consultancy called, CAPCIS and he appointed Dr David Gearey as head of this unit. He also later became President of ICorr. Additional publicity was given to the World of Corrosion by the tabloids publicising the fact that the first, “Professor of Rust,” had been appointed following the Government report, emanating from Tony Benn’s, initiative.

Following the merger of CAPA and ICorr Tech the new Institution launched a number of awards, two of which in particular were of considerable merit. The first was in recognition of the late Jack Galloway, a founder Member of BACE and Former Chairman of BACE Council. The Galloway medal was for young corrosion scientists, under the age of 25 and was based on an essay submission, or a work project report. The Galloway medal was to be presented at the Corrosion Science Division, Annual Symposium and the first award was made in September 1976 at the 17th Corrosion Science Symposium.

The second award, was the UR Evans award, which took the form of an engraved sword. The first recipient of the UR Evans award was made to Dr T P Hoar for the work that he had carried out, not only at Cambridge University as Reader, but for his work on the Government Committee for the UK cost of Corrosion. The award was also presented in 1976 by the first President of the new Institution, Prof. Stuart Llewellyn-Leach. It was felt very appropriate that Dr T P Hoar was the first recipient, since the idea of these awards came at the time of the merger discussions between CAPA and ICorr Tech and it represented memories of two most influential individuals, from the early days of the two organisations.

1979 - 1989

When our President Paul Lambert asked me to start this series covering our 50th anniversary year with a small section in each copy of the Corrosion Managements, during 2009, I asked any member, who had any historic information, photographs or documents to send them to me and to comment on my articles for additional information or corrections.

I would like to thank all the people for the black & white photographs from the early days and for the calls and written information received to date.

The Second Part, which featured the change of name from BACE/ICorr Tech to ICorrST has raised a number of questions and requests for more information on the names and how these were selected. So before I start on my Part 3, on the joint venture with NACE, I will just give a little more background information on the name changes.

The Council of BACE made a proposal in October 1966 to change the name to the Institution of Corrosion Technology (ICorrTech) this was agreed by the membership and there were no alternative names suggested at that time. When the merger of ICorrTech and the Corrosion and Protection Association (CAPA) was being discussed the question of the name, recognising the activities of the two separate bodies, was of major importance to both memberships at that time. A constitution committee was set up in 1972, which comprised 4 Council members, from ICorr Tech and 4 Council members from CAPA, chaired by Henry Cole. It was agreed that both bodies would circulate a postal referendum to their respective memberships to obtain democratically the most popular name with the members of both bodies.

There was a list of 18 suggested names sent out on the referendum forms in 1974 and a further 11 suggestions were made by members when submitting their referendum returns from ICorr Tech and a further 8 additional names by members of CAPA (37 names in total!). The membership of ICorr Tech numbered 480 in August 1974 when the referendum was sent out to all paid up members. 45% of the membership responded and the preferred name was the Institution of Corrosion Science and Technology.

The referendum was handled for ICorr Tech by Peter Neufeld, the Honorary Secretary, and the returns were scrutinised by Kathleen Bloomfield, the Head of Administration at the Belgrave Square offices. The referendum sent out to members of CAPA, of which there were 176 members at the time had a 59% response and again the preferred name was the Institution of Corrosion Science and Technology (ICorrST). The referendum for CAPA members was sent out by the Honorary Secretary Charles Booker and was scrutinised by Dr DP Whittle. The suggested new name was confirmed to the membership of both bodies on the 5th July 1974 and a joint Council statement was circulated, which stated,

“The new name acknowledges the scientific interests of the new Institution, which will be strengthened by the ex CAPA side, most of whom are research workers. The titles of the present qualifications in Corrosion Technology, which will be retained, fall logically within this name”.

The British Joint Corrosion Group (BJCG), which was a small division of the society of Chemical Industry, did not wish to join the merger of the 2 major bodies.

The Members of Capa form the Corrosion Science Division (CSD).

Following the merger and the official change of name on 1st January 1975, the membership expanded rapidly and reached 1000 some 4 years later, at the start of the joint venture with USA -NACE.

There had been a number of approaches to the American-based National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE) as early as 1962 by Jack Galloway, the then Chairman of BACE and also in the early 1970’s by Keith Julyan Day, who was Chairman of the ICorr Tech, Technical Committee and a member of Council, however no serious discussions were held until 1979.

The ICorrST Technical Committee and the membership generally was expanding rapidly and in 1977 the Technical Committee arranged to form some parallel working groups with the NACE TPC and also for the Institution to organise a conference and exhibition on an annual basis. These activities were seen as the start of a conflict between some senior members of ICorr S&T and brought about a call for a break away formation of NACE in the UK as a separate section in competition to ICorrST.

The open NACE meeting, which was called to launch this potentially controversial development, was circulated to all NACE members based in the UK and was chaired by Ran Nicklin who ran a painting inspection company and was a past chairman of the Yorkshire Branch and a founder member of BACE. It was therefore viewed by a number of ICorrST members with considerable concern. Although there were a number of objections raised by members who attended the breakaway open meeting from the floor of the meeting, a straw vote, which was taken showed that the majority of NACE members present were in support of forming an “independent NACE UK Section.”

ICorrST officers met this move with considerable concern. An informal emergency meeting was held by the then President Ken Chandler and it was agreed that I would fly to the USA as Chairman of the Technical Committee and member of Council, to discuss this move and to express the ICorr concern with NACE Officials. I hand carried a personal letter from the President of ICorrST and this was handed to the Executive Director of NACE, Tenny Hull and his deputy Dale Miller. It was agreed that “a hold” would be put on any request from the UK for a formation of a NACE UK section until senior NACE Officers had visited the UK to discuss with the NACE members and ICorrST Officers alternative compromise arrangements.

In the end a satisfactory way forward was agreed, following visits by Dale Miller and Chuck Munger and so the Corrosion Control Engineering Joint Venture (CCEJV) was formed in 1980. The first CCEJV Executive committee comprised equal numbers of UK NACE members and the Technical Committee of ICorr ST. The initial work and diplomacy of Dale Miller, Bill Hewes and John Trim of NACE and Ken Chandler and Graham Wood of ICorr S&T should be recognised in the successful outcome of this arrangement.

The 1st annual conference launching the CCEJV Technical Activities was held at the Imperial Hotel in London on the 13th/14th October 1980 and consisted of 16 technical presentations and 12 work group meetings with over 200 delegates attending, it also showed a healthy return of over £3,000. This 1st conference and exhibition was an excellent success and an endorsement from the membership to the viability of the CCEJV.

The Technical Committee of ICorrST and the activities generated by that group were merged into the new CCEJV and the old ICorrST technical committee merged with the training committee. The annual conference, which rapidly expanded to 550 delegates in 1981 & 650 in 1982, was combined with the big independent Correx Exhibition, which was organised by the Morgan Grampian Publishing Group.

The conferences were supplemented by the rapidly growing Technical Activities Committees (TAC) of the CCEJV and although in 1981 there were just 13 unconnected random workgroups set up to parallel NACE TPC committees in the States, by 1987 there were 26 workgroups operating with sub divisions through 6 unit committee structures, the majority of which were linked through cross membership to committees of similar scope in the US NACE TPC.

The association and rapport between NACE and ICorrST through the CCEJV in those early days was extremely good and NACE never failed to send representatives from their TPC’s, and generally the Chairman of their International Relations Committee and their senior administration officers and on a number of occasions their President.

It was clear that the Technical Activities Coordinating Committee (TACC), which was established in 1982, was the key to success through production of well documented, “State of the Art” reports, which were widely circulated and sold to the general public. The first state of the art report was on sulphate reducing bacteria in July 1982 and by 1986 two NACE “recommended practices” documents were adopted by the US parent body and by 1986 CCEJV had a number of representatives on British Standards, ISO and NACE TP Committees.

In 1983 it was decided by ICorrST and the CCEJV that they could run the exhibition, which numbered 80 exhibition stands in 1982 and take this away from the Morgan Grampian Publishing Group and their well publicised, “Correx” exhibition. This change of exhibition organiser created another rift within the membership of ICorrST.

The Morgan Grampian Group approached Ran Nicklin to run a conference alongside Morgan Grampian’s Correx, in direct competition to the conference and exhibition organised one month later by the CCEJV. The CCEJV and ICorrST responded strongly to this unfortunate competitive battle and eventually Morgan Grampian announced that they were cancelling their event, planned for 11-13th October, just 10 weeks before the scheduled date of the CCEJV event in Birmingham on 15-17th November.

This embarrassment to the Morgan Grampian/Nicklin event resulted in all of the Exhibitors and delegates switching to the CCEJV/ICorrST Exhibition and Conference and boosting the numbers to over 100 exhibitors and 800 conference delegates (our best ever attendance still to this day). Morgan Grampian never attempted to run another Corrosion Exhibition or Conference again. Right through the 80’s the CCEJV/ICorrST had the UK corrosion market to themselves. The name of CORREX was eventually dropped by Morgan Grampian and has now been acquired by ICorr and will be re-launched in October 2009 at NEC Birmingham

Another initiative of the CCEJV was the Spring Work Week (SWW), which was held in May each year. This technical working week attracted a number of senior TPC, NACE officials over from the USA to join in the UK and European TAC committees. This SWW work produced a number of documents for circulation through both parent bodies. Our records show that the main 1985 SWW event had just under 300 attendees, some for only part of the programme and others for all of the sessions. It was designed to keep the costs to the members to an absolute minimum since nearly all of the attendees were contributing to the final documentation, which was not only to be sold, but to be published in the NACE Materials Performance magazine and the ICorrST Industrial Corrosion publication.

The growth of the CCEJV/TAC became widespread throughout Europe and North America with committee members, both visiting and corresponding. For example, the revision of RP-01-76 was reviewed by a joint task group T-1 2a in the UK, chaired by Fred Palmer of BP and T-1 2b based in Houston chaired by Jack Smart of AMOCO and all of the communications were sent to each of the parallel committees. The resulting revised RP document gave input on the protection of fixed offshore structures, in wide ranges of environments across the world.

In addition another task group was chaired and organised from Norway, and each one of the Chairmen travelled extensively to gather overseas membership. There were a number of individuals who chaired the technical activities work groups, but in particular, Brian Wyatt, Bob Crundwell, Eddie Field, Mike Clarke and Dave Harvey spring to mind as people who featured prominently during the successful 80s. However special mention must be given to Fred Palmer of BP who was the first Chairman of the CCEJV Management Committee and who was a driving force throughout the 80’s

Following the changes at NACE headquarters and the departure from various committees of the key NACE Officers and staff who had been so supportive in the formation of the CCEJV, the success of the venture made some NACE newcomers under the new Executive Director, Chip Lee, take a closer look at the benefits NACE, was achieving as a parent body. This change of personnel brought about a re-organisation of the way in which the CCEJV operated and was examined by a committee set up by NACE under the chairmanship of Prof Redvers Parkins (who incidentally was the only member of both parent bodies who became President of ICorrST and subsequently of NACE) The process of accommodating the required changes of NACE led to the closure of the CCEJV and the formation of a new body called the Corrosion Engineering Association (CEA). The CEA had registered charitable status in the UK and was responsible to a Board of Directors, which was composed of ICorrST, NACE and CEA representatives.

Although this was agreed by both parent bodies and eventually by the CCEJV Management Committee and TACC, within a short period of time at the end of 1988 NACE decided to set up their own UK office in Guildford, Surrey and to liaise directly with the NACE members rather than all of the CCEJV members through that NACE UK office. The majority of the CEA Board and the Council of ICorrST opposed this move and so it resulted in the winding up of the CEA and the formation of ICorrST Corrosion Engineering Division (CED), which incorporated, all of the technical activities previously run through the CCEJV and CEA. Sadly this was the final divorce with NACE, but shortly after they closed the NACE UK office and reverted the administration back to Houston.

It is very regrettable that this divorce occurred as the technical activities have progressively reduced since that time. The next part of our history will cover the development of the CED and the renaming of the Institution and will cover the period between 1990 and 2000.

1990 - 2009

OUR OFFICES

Our offices initially started in 1959 in the London area where we had three different offices at that time, initially in old Brompton Road, we started at the offices of the publishers of Corrosion Prevention and Control, whose initiative in launching, “BACE” was started with their magazine inserted as the Corrosion Engineer. Within two years it was decided by the then, Council of BACE, that a move away from the publishers offices should be made and this was then temporarily located in Ovington Place, the offices of Jack Cardy of Allweather Evode Paints, whose Secretary Margaret Terry, provided a back-up service to the increasing number of BACE members. In 1965 it was decided that working from the offices of a paint manufacturer was not in the best interests of a professional membership body, so the Council moved the offices to 14 Belgrave Square and appointed Kathleen Bloomfield as a full time Secretary and she worked closely with the, then Hon. Secretary Charles Booker, from that address.

In 1980 the Council of the Institute felt that a move away to work in conjunction with a “sister organisation”, the Institute of Metal Finishing, would be in the best interests of our organisation, so when all the paperwork was detailed and signed up, the move to IMF Birmingham office in Holloway Head took place in 1982 and one of the IMF staff, Mary Whetnall, was made responsible for the Institute of Corrosion’s administration, assisted by her IMF administration team, all promising to keep ICorr and IMF separate!

As many of you will remember although the facilities, the Council meeting room, the services and the support was satisfactory the independence of our Institute was progressively being lost and so some four years later Council, under the Presidency of the first Chairman/Executive President of our Institute, Jim Bown took steps to remove our organisation from the IMF building and they found the first of our premises in Leighton Buzzard, located at 17 Market Square.

Coupled with this move the success of the conferences and exhibitions from a financial aspect had enabled us to appoint our own full time Executive Secretary, Keith Vincent, who organised the move from Birmingham to Leighton Buzzard in 1987. However, following the departure of Keith Vincent and his team of ICorr staff which, at its peak numbered six, all had to leave for financial reasons and I was asked to take over on a part time basis, the running of the Institute, between 1992 and 1994. When we had turned things around with new contracts with IBC and three successful conferences and exhibitions, I was able to hand back over the Institute and get back to my proper job with the arrival of Brian Weston to manage the offices on a part time basis.

Following that change we then had our second move within Leighton Buzzard to Leck House, which was organised by Brian Weston in conjunction with Gill Inwood and we remained at Leck House until the initiative of Presidents John O’Shea and Robert Edyvean resulted in purchasing our own building, a major first in the history of our Institute and we then relocated our offices to Corrosion House at Vimy Court.

At the same time the cost of the acquisition of our property, coupled with the financial losses on the two conferences held in 2001 and 2002, at Edinburgh and Cardiff respectively, meant that the Institute could not continue to employ their own staff, so the Institute contracted out the administration, on a temporary basis, with Gill Inwood being appointed as the Office Manager. We remained at Corrosion House for six years and as the property values in Leighton Buzzard rapidly increased, as it did nationwide quite dramatically, before the predicted down turn in the financial climate, Council decided to sell the building asset at its peak and move into our fourth office building in Leighton Buzzard at High Street Mews.

Gill Inwood continued to manage the office admin on a contracted out basis, together with Cerri Sweet and since moving to our latest rented property, (members can be reassured that the money that was acquired from the sale of Corrosion House has been put in a ring fenced account)! We still continue to operate from this latest Leighton Buzzard office and although Cerri has left temporarily on maternity leave and congratulations, she has now her first child, we have taken on Denise Aldous from Sigma Coatings to assist Gill in running the ICorr admin, still on a contracted out basis.

CONFERENCES AND EXHIBITION

The second section I was to cover was the history of the corrosion conference and exhibitions. The development of the Institute’s Technical Committee during the 1970’s resulted in a number of one day conferences with table top exhibitions being held in conjunction with different Branches throughout the UK. At the end of the 70’s the technical committee decided that they would hold a two-day National UK Corrosion Conference in London. It is with great personal regret that our working arrangement with NACE fell apart, in the way it did, but it was inevitable once we became competitors rather than partners, for this excellent 10 year working arrangement to cease. I only hope that all those who have learned the lessons of our past history can revive this relationship, in the future.

The formation of the CCEJV coincided with the first National UK Conference, which meant that the event that had been organised for the Imperial Hotel in Russell Square in 1980 was joined by the newly formed CCEJV. There were 16 technical presentations and 12 work group meetings at this event with over 200 delegates attending for the two days, with a £3,000 surplus, which in those days was like winning the lottery! We then progressed with further events being held in the Cairn Hotel in Harrogate in 1981, the Cunard International Hotel in London in 1982 and the Metropole in Birmingham in 1983.

The 1983 event was the first of the break away from the Morgan Grampian Group and although we were not permitted to use the name of Correx, since this had been acquired by Morgan Grampian, we flagged it up, with the catchy title, “UK Corrosion 83, the National Conference and Exhibition of the Institution of Corrosion Science and Technology and joint venture with NACE”, some mouthful, but it took off.

As set out in the previous May-June 2009 issue number 89 history section, the 83 event with the Exhibition and Conference organised by our Institute resulted in over 100 exhibitors and 800 conference delegates attending the three day event and this remains our best ever attendance to this day.

After our success of UK Corrosion 83, in 1984 we took on the major Wembley Conference Centre, with our own Conference and Exhibition and delegate numbers remained in excess of 500, after Wembley in 85 we move to Harrogate and in 86 back to Birmingham, still organising our own exhibitions, but with a different exhibition contractor. In 1987 we moved to Brighton for two successive years, since the 87 event was successful and we decided to organise and hire the same venue for our combined event with EuroCorr 1988 and although our conferences traditionally had been held in November or the very end of October, this second event with EuroCorr was held in the first week of October from the 3rd to 5th in 1988.

With the arrival of Keith Vincent and the move from Birmingham to Leighton Buzzard, our 1989 event was held in Blackpool, and was administered by the Leighton Buzzard Office, with the timing changed to the middle of November and this was the last event where we were working (only just) with the newly formed CEA. Following the split with NACE the 1990 conference was held at Sandown Park Racecourse and was organised by the Institute of Corrosion in conjunction with the European Federation of Corrosion during the last week of October. In 1991 the event reverted back to Manchester, where it was administered by IBC and again in 1992.

There was a break in 93 and the conference reverted to the South Coast in 1994 at Bournemouth International Centre, with the exhibition being organised by the Turret Group, the former company of Hill Media, our current Correx organisers. There was then again another break and in 1999 attempts were made to organise a joint conference with BINDT and although this went ahead, entitled NDT 99 and UK Corrosion 99 there were over 100 papers over 24 sessions, but only 19 were corrosion related and when the repeat of this exercise was discussed for Torquay in 2000, our Institute declined to proceed, in view of the BINDT domination of the previous event.

Two very successful conferences were held in 2001, an ICorr/NACE project entitled Corrosion Odyssey 2001, incorporating UK Corrosion 2001, this event although a financial liability was technically successful. The 2002 event was held in Cardiff and again this was similar to Edinburgh, in that it was a financial liability, but a great technical success. The Institute then reverted to the original venue in Harrogate at the Cairn Hotel where UK Corrosion 2003 was held with table-top exhibitions also organised by the Institute. Similar small events have been held at Manchester and also at Sheffield, but much of the original databases and exhibitor details had been lost and so these events organised by Manchester University and OCCA showed that the event organising was on a decline and the exhibition virtually non existent.

The formation of Correx Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Institute of Corrosion, which we were able to get as soon as the name had been dispensed with by the Morgan Grampian Group and its successors, was used to revive the exhibition and conference at the NEC building in Birmingham along side Surface World, organised successfully in the past by Hill Media. A report on this event was covered in issue 92 – Nov/Dec issue recently circulated.

THE MAGAZINES OVER THE YEARS

Finally, in this section I would like to cover the development of the member’s magazines as it has progressed over the years. Initially the BACE Newsletter was produced by an automatic copying process, purely in black and white and it was dealt with in-house by Dr Tiratsoo’s publishing company. Following the name change to the Institution of Corrosion Technology, the bulletin continued in a similar format, but two colours were used at great expense! At the time of the third change of name to the Institution of Corrosion Science and Technology, the magazine was still entitled ‘Bulletin’, but had increased to 8 or 10 pages and some issues had at least four colour present in the illustrations.

These bulletins continued right up until October 1982, but it was at that time that a major change was decided upon by the Council and the new magazine was entitled “Industrial Corrosion”. It was interesting to look at the list of members included in that very last October bulletin, which sadly included the obituary for Tim French-Mullen, but eminent names such as M D Allen, D W Harvey, M D Foskitt and I C Sellars were all included in the membership list. The Editor of the new Industrial Corrosion journal was Colin Bryer and Colin is till involved with certain aspects of the ICorr and Correx publicity.

It was good to see that Brian Tunnard was still the Honorary Editor of the publication and remained so on the transfer to Industrial Corrosion, right the way through until the final change to Corrosion Management and the publishers to our current publishing company, Square One, when Brian Tunnard stood down, a position he held for over 30 years and will be remembered by many of our existing members and it was for that reason that he was included in our special group of ten VIP’s for our 50th Anniversary celebrations at the Thames Barrier.

The name Industrial Corrosion was felt that this did not cover the general corrosion subject matter and a number of alternative names were considered, with Council finally deciding on the current title, ‘Corrosion Management’. Corrosion Management was launched in 1994 and continued to be edited by Colin Bryer with Brian Tunnard as the Chairman of the Editorial Team. This continued until the publishing contract was transferred from Impact Limited, Colin Bryer’s company, to Deeson Publicatoons in Kent during early 2000. In view of some difficulties with the new publishers, the contract was again transferred from Deesons to our current publishers at Square One in 2002, where it has remained ever since, with Brian Tunnard standing down and Bob Akid taking over as Technical Editor.

In our first issue of 2010, the Jan/Feb issue, number 93, a report was produced for this issue of the magazine entitled ‘A New Year Presentation’. I was invited to give this first lecture of the new year by the London Branch, which gave me the opportunity to pay a tribute to Harry Hatley, whose funeral I attended on the first working day of 2010, (another VIP at our 50th Anniversary and a founder member of BACE).

The second part of my New Year presentation, which was delivered in three parts, gave me an opportunity to review the six parts of the history of the Institute, which I briefly summarised for the benefit of London Branch Members and also to be able to refresh my own memory on what I had said earlier in the year. I took the opportunity of selecting from my historical research of our Institute, three President’s actions that had occurred of great merit during the 50 years. In third place I selected, Redvers Parkins (President 1982/83) for his involvement with NACE, the CCEJV and CEA. In second place was Dr T P Hoar, President 1969/70 for his involvement with the DTI Committee on the cost of corrosion.

In first place as being the most significant achievement for the Institute, in my personal view over 50 years, I placed John O’Shea, President 2000/2002, for the acquisition of Corrosion House. Something, which had been attempted by the Institute on many occasions in the past, but never previously achieved. This was indeed coupled with the two major conferences and exhibitions in Edinburgh, Scotland and Cardiff, Wales, as well at conferences in Dublin and Cork, Ireland. He was also responsible for introducing recognition by the Science Council for our members Chartered Scientist status.

As some of you may have read in our issue number 89 last May, there was a short articled entitled, – “Inter Institute liaison”, this brief article described discussions ongoing between ICorr and BINDT, which started in 2007/2008 on a “President to President” basis, the Trustees and Council have been progressing these discussions and in my final article on our history, entitled, – “The New Millennium and where are we going, 2000-2009 and Beyond”, I hope to update the membership on the outcome of these discussions and how they will affect the future of our Institute.